Moana NZ has opened a ground-breaking oyster hatchery in Nelson that will increase production capacity and ensure a reliable supply of oyster spat.
The $5 million venture is part of Moana New Zealand’s $21 million, five-year investment plan to build its capacity, says Moana New Zealand chair Rachel Taulelei (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Rārua).
“This hatchery, Kirikiritātangi (singing shingle), is phase one, and it will help us achieve sales of 1.65 million dozen oysters per year by 2027,” she says.
The name was gifted to Moana NZ by iwi of Te Tau Ihu (Upper South Island) and references the shingle beds and the noise they make carrying the sounds, water and abundance of kaimoana at Te Taero a Kereopa (the boulder bank) to where shellfish beds were located at Wakapūaka before land was reclaimed for farming.
Taulelei says the hatchery will help provide end-to-end control of the oyster growing process, increasing consistency and reliability of supply for the country's largest oyster producer.
“One of the critical success factors behind our growth plan is the reliability of spat supply, and the hatchery is key to this.
More oysters making the rounds.
Year-round crop
"The Pacific oyster industry started in the 1970s with farming methods based on catching wild spat on sticks. This is still standard practice in the industry but outcomes are difficult to control and very seasonal. Our selective breeding programme began more than 20 years ago and, along with improved husbandry practices, it has enabled us to produce consistently high-quality oysters year-round.”
The first commercial run from the new hatchery is due later this month and, when it is running at full capacity, Kirikiritātangi will provide high-quality oyster spat to Moana’s farming sites throughout the North Island.
Moana NZ's interim report for 2022, released in June, shows the tio industry has been impacted by Covid-19 and labour shortages in Aotearoa and the war in Ukraine. The loss of a contract grower also affected the quantity of tio Moana NZ produced in the year to March.
Iwi at the heart
Taulelei says Kirikiritātangi is an example of Māori leading the industry,
“Iwi are our shareholders and remain at the heart of everything we do. As a proudly indigenous commercial business with long-term views, our people are engaged throughout our oyster business.
"At Moana New Zealand, manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga are two of our key values and we take them really seriously. We work collaboratively and contribute to our local communities, not only through employment opportunities but also by improving the way our kaimahi work. We engage local suppliers, as we did here in Nelson, and we continue to showcase our premium kaimoana to the world.
Sustainable future
“As New Zealand’s largest tio (oyster) producer, we recognise innovation will sustain us into the future," she says.
"Along with our breeding programme and state-of-the-art hatchery, we’ve also begun removing existing tio farming infrastructure and replacing it with semi-automated farming technology. So instead of old timber rack structures, we have floating tio baskets on longlines. This not only creates better working conditions for our kaimahi but it has also less impact on te taiao, the environment.”
